Chris Jericho Talks About WWE Return, If He Is Underutilized? and More

Chris Jericho recently spoke with Donald Wood from Ring Rust Radio. Here are some highlights from the interview.

Keeping his Royal Rumble return a surprise and being rewarded with a huge pop: “I don’t know if it I was rewarded with a huge pop. I think it was the fact that people were genuinely surprised and shocked and kind of rewarding themselves. I think it was cool in this day and age that we can actually still surprise people and fool them; especially with the internet all the different ways of social media. And the fact that not one person leaked it, I thought it was a real testament to the company, a real testament to how close I kept it to the vest because not a lot of people knew. There were people in the building that work there for the WWE that didn’t even know until I walked out to the curtain. So, that’s cool to know, because in this day and age, people really have a sense of entitlement, like to play god, like to say they know what’s going on and know everything. When they didn’t know everything, we kind of fooled people it was a really cool moment for me and it could be one of the last times we see something like this because of the reasons I said. That’s one of the reasons the reaction was so huge because people legitimately didn’t expect it. It’s not like, ‘Well, we knew he was coming’, it was legitimate, like, ‘Holy Smoke, I can’t believe it’, and that’s why the reaction was what it was.

“It was probably one of the best reactions I’ve ever received, besides maybe ’99 when I interrupted The Rock in Chicago, and it was definitely up there as one of top two or three responses I’ve ever received, it was pretty cool.”

Some fans feeling that he’s been either underutilized, misused or held back: “I guess six-time world champion, nine-time Intercontinental champion, first undisputed champion, I guess all that stuff is being held back; is being a jobber. Then yes, I totally agree with them. I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m Y2J, man. I’ve been doing this for 22 years at the top level. I don’t understand fans sometimes. Six-time world champion, I don’t know how you can deny that. Obviously, at some point I got something right?”

Balancing WWE and his band, Fozzy: “I guess it’s because I’ve always been kind of a career schizo since I was a kid. I wanted to be in a rock band and I wanted to be a wrestler. I dint know how I was going to do wither one of those, but I just decided that’s what I want to do. You can’t really do both at the same time, you can juggle. That’s one of the reasons I can back for this run is because I had an open time in Fozzy’s tour schedule. Even still, were going to tour with Metallica for a couple weeks on the Soundwave Tour. So I mean there is still a little bit of a balance between one and the other, but now my focus and my schedule is always going to be more Fozzy-based at this time in my career rather than WWE-based. Doesn’t mean I won’t come and go in the WWE for as long as I can, for as long as I feel I can live up to the standards I set. I was actually pleasantly surprised over the last month, I think it has been one of the best months I’ve ever had as far as performances and match quality. At the risk of sounding too egotistical, I’ve had the best match on the show or top-two best matches on the show on every show that I’ve done since I came back, and that was after a six-month layoff. I’m putting in some time. 45 minutes in the rumble, then 18 minutes with CM Punk and 32 minutes in the chamber. It’s been a pretty cool vibe to know I can go in there and perform at the highest level and put in the time I need to put in. As long as I can continue to do that and feel good about myself and my performance, there is no reason I won’t continue to comeback. But, it’s always going to based of Fozzy’s schedule and what I have going on with the band.”